Friday, November 5, 2010

Day 12 - November 5 - Luke 23:24

Your Name is LOVE
Use this day, O Lord, to assure me that you have my picture on your refrigerator
and that I am wonderfully yours!
Consider God love: If you were the only person in the world who sinned, he would have died just for you!
 
Then said Jesus,
Father, forgive them;
for they know not what they do.
Luke 23:34
 
Guilt and shame.
 
It seems like I do battle with those two words -- and the three-toed character who whispers them -- every single day. Satan holds millions upon millions captive with these four little words, "God can't forgive you."
 
And too many of us believe the lie. Why? Because, basically, we're ashamed of ourselves. And/or we're riddled with guilt. And because we can't forgive ourselves, we believe that God can't forgive us either.
 
And so we confess and confess and confess. And every time we confess, we make God smaller and smaller and smaller. Instead of believing that God could forgive us once and for all, repeated confessions convince us that our god is small and weak and unforgiving.
 
My constant assurance to people is, "If Jesus could forgive those who nailed him to the cross, don't you know that he can forgive you?!!"
 
John 3:16-17 assure us of God's amazing love! "For ... God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Indeed ... God so loved the world that he gave his only Son [just for you]."
 
Just for you!
 
God gave his only Son just for you.
 
No matter what you've done ... no matter what you've left undone ... God loves you. 
 
You weren't one of the soldiers who nailed him to the cross. And if he can forgive them, he can forgive you. Why? Well, that's the truth to bathe in today ... it's just because he loves you!!!
 
In Christ's Love,
a guy who wants you to share this
with someone who needs to hear
of God's grace and forgiveness

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